Usovuori
Usovuori (Russ. Усогорск) is a relatively small city within Northwest Uralica county of Uralica, that sits on the Mezen' River. Despite its modest size, however, it is an important hub in the area, with the nearest major centres in either direction being hundreds of kilometres away (Syktyvkar to the southeast and Arkhangel'sk to the northwest). It is the county seat of Northwest Uralica as well. It is part of a small conurbation serviced by Highway UH-16B, that also includes the towns of Koslan and Razgort. There is an unnumbered highway that runs up the east bank of the Mezen' river as well, which connects Highway UH-16B with UH-16A at Zherd' Junction. Strangely enough, the city was founded (in 1968) as an outpost for loggers to take wood to send to Bulgaria to help their economy, and as such, the city is one of the few in Uralica that actually has a twin city, the city of Pernik in Bulgaria. Forestry still plays a role in Usovuori's economy, although there has been a heavy shift towards mining and metallurgy. Chemical production was also once a factor, but the unforeseen leakage of a condemned chemical plant in April of 2010 sparked concerns on fluvial pollution, so many chemical production businesses moved out of the city. Culture "Usovuori" is a rough Finnicism of "Usogorsk," the city's original (and official Russian) name, and this came into effect because Finns comprise the majority of Usovuori's population (and the entire conurbation's for that matter). Russians and Komi make up the balance of the population. Besides the languages of these three groups, English and Tundra Nenets are widely spoken amongst the population - the latter is due to the fact that many of the truckers that drive down from Mezen' and its twin town Kamenka are Nenets-speakers. Besides its overwhelmingly popular football (soccer) club, Usovuoren Jalkapalloklubi or UJK, its biggest attractions are the Usovuori/Northwest Uralican Historical Forestry Museum, a Komi Cultural Centre, Riverfront Baptist Church, and the Bulgarian Friendship Museum. It also had a reputation for being a good fishing spot, which died off somewhat after the aforementioned chemical plant incident, but is in the process of being fixed by the Uralican government. 2010 Mezen' River Disaster On 18 April 2010, a team of loggers near Koslan noticed an odd pinkish tinge in the waters of the Mezen' River and phoned the local authorities, who dismissed it as a chance biological phenomenon. However, by the following day, there had been several concerned calls made to both the County Board and the Uralican Tribal Council from Usovuori and Razgort stating that there was a large pink streak in the river, so an investigation was launched. By the time the investigation turned up the source, this odd chemical contaminant had forced water to be shipped in from elsewhere. Terrorism was quickly ruled out, and in the end, the source of this unknown contaminant was traced to a run-down abandoned chemical weapons depot near the regional airport. The river's fish stocks were devastated, but cleanup efforts were started early enough that it did not take a particularly large amount of time to clean up, relatively speaking - it took three weeks to dig up contaminated vegetation and soil, safely remove what was left of the chemical in question (and all other chemicals contained therein) from the depot, dismantle the depot, and remove as much of the chemical as possible from the Mezen' River. Fish repopulation schemes are still in progress. The total cost of cleanup was a surprisingly low K$2.6M, most of which was for the river cleanup. The reason for the low cost was that several local excavation companies voluntarily lent their machinery to the government instead of making them pay for it - something cleanup project manager Janne Hirvonen called "a shining example of true Christianity at work." Sport COMING SOON Neighbourhoods and Suburbs *Uralikskyy Pernik *Eteläusovuori (Note: although Razgort and Usovuori comprise a contiguous urban area, they are separate municipalities. There has, however, been sporadic talk of merging the two. Category:Settlements of Uralica